It actually took police a total of nearly 12 minutes to get there. The Cleveland Police union president blames short staffing. Steve Loomis told the I-Team when that call came in, police cars in that district were already on high-priority matters. So dispatchers had to wait for a car to send to the call for the murder in progress.

“They were looking for about three minutes for a car to become available. These guys got the assignment. They got there in a timely fashion. But they came from the south side of the city.”

The dispatcher also asked the caller questions such as, “You letting up on the belt?” And, “Do you hear anything coming from him like short breaths?”

In the end, Cleveland City Hall says police arrived in about 11 minutes 50 seconds. The city says the average response time for top-priority calls is about 8 minutes 30 seconds.

No telling whether the victim might be alive if police had gotten there earlier. But with a suspect calling police and then asking about response time, we had to ask too.

George Rauls has now been indicted for murder. Records show he is pleading not guilty.

An assistant safety director reviewed the tape for us. He concluded the dispatcher did a good job of handling the situation on a 12-minute phone call. The city says despite the delay in getting police there, the city found the response time within an acceptable range considering other calls at the time.